An oil derrick rises up in a neighborhood in Weld County, Colorado. CREDIT: Steve Nehf/The Denver Post via Getty Images

A college student, a lawyer, and a videographer attended a protest at an oil and gas construction site in Greeley, Colorado in early March and all three are now getting sued by the company behind the massive project.

The student, Cullen Lobe, already was facing criminal charges in Weld County, Colorado for locking himself to a bulldozer as part of an act of civil disobedience at the oil and gas construction site. But for Extraction Oil and Gas, the government’s criminal charges against Lobe weren’t enough. The Denver-based company decided to take legal action of its own.

The company’s civil lawsuit names Lobe and four others — John Lamb (the lawyer), Jeremy Mack (the videographer), Brian Hedden, and Mary Delffs — as defendants. While Lobe was arrested and now faces criminal charges, the four other individuals were not arrested but instead were given criminal citations by the Weld County Sheriff’s Department for trespassing at the Extraction Oil and Gas drilling site.

The legal action against Lamb, a lawyer with the National Lawyers Guild who was acting as a legal observer at the March 8 protest, and Mack, an independent journalist who videotaped the protest, comes at a time of increasing concern surrounding the arrest and prosecution of reporters and protesters critical of U.S. government and powerful corporations.

During protests of Donald Trump’s inauguration in Washington D.C., at least six journalists and filmmakers were charged with felony rioting offenses. Legal observers also were rounded up as part of the D.C. police’s strategy to trap and then arrest everyone who was on the street.

The charges were eventually dropped against the legal observers and most, but not all, the journalists. A reporter who went to trial as part of the first group of inauguration defendants was found not guilty. Another journalist is among the defendants still facing prosecution.

Prosecutors also brought serious criminal charges against the filmmakers who covered the coordinated oil pipeline “value turner” action in October 2016. But the cases against the filmmakers were later dismissed.

Over the past decade, energy companies have started taking stronger measures, including legal action, against environmentalists and landowners who wage civil disobedience campaigns against their projects. The aggressive attacks by the companies, combined with state lawmakers considering anti-protest legislation, are making citizens think twice before exercising their First Amendment rights, according to legal experts.

The lawsuit against Lobe is “meant to harass and intimidate” him while seeking to “chill and silence the community,” Lobe’s lawyer, Jason Flores-Williams, wrote in a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

In its March 9 lawsuit, which was amended three weeks later, Extraction Oil and Gas asked the District Court of Weld County, Colorado to force the 23-year-old Lobe and the others to pay “all available damages, fees and costs, including at least nominal damages.” Additionally, the complaint seeks a ruling to prevent the defendants from committing “any further trespass” on any Extraction Oil & Gas sites. The company contends the demands in its lawsuit are necessary to deter further disruption at its drilling sites.

In a motion filed last Wednesday, Flores-Williams asked the court to dismiss the company’s complaint.

Republicans push anti-protest laws

According to Flores-Williams, a prominent defense attorney based in Denver, the company’s lawsuit is a “textbook” case of what is known as a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, or SLAAP. This type of legal action is intended to intimidate and silence critics by…

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